Suspect in Rudd Disappearance Also Had Contact With Other Girls at Shelter

Today’s updates on missing eight-year-old Relisha Rudd were released at a press conference held around 1:30 p.m., during which, Metropolitan Police revealed that it is now sure that Tatum had contact with up to four girls at the homeless shelter where he worked and where Relisha’s family had been living.

During a March 27 press conference near Kenilworth Park, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said, “We cannot ignore the possibility that he may have killed her.” Lanier was referring to janitor Kahlil Malik Tatum, the suspected abductor, who worked at the shelter, where Rudd and her mother lived. D.C. police also labeled their efforts “a recovery operation.”

The search at Kenilworth Park resumed this morning, after it was suspended Thursday night following 12 hours of inconclusive searching. Just after 7 a.m., D.C. Fire Department and Emergency Services, the Metropolitan Police Department and a K-9 unit conducted a “grid search” of the vast wooded 700-acre area.

After information was disclosed which tracked Tatum to the Kenilworth Park area, investigators began the search. Investigators also reported that on March 2, a day after Rudd was last seen, Tatum spent considerable time in Kenilworth Park. In addition, according to NBC4 News, on March 2 he had purchased suspicious items like garbage bags, a shovel, and lime, which can be used to speed up the decomposition of bodies as well.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Relisha Rudd or Kahlil Tatum is asked to call 911or the Command Information Center at 202-727-9099 or 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).